Red Moon's and Kanrinin's
by Tezza1502
Summary: At one point in the manga, Kaolla Su revealed to Keitaro and Naru that she could occasionally appear older than she was. It wasn't ever really followed up on in either the manga or the anime. So I decided to put my own spin on it. Enjoy!
1. A New Dig

_PROLOGUE__:- One night, soon after their return from the Hinata Beach Café where they had just spent the summer, Keitaro had come home to find a beautifully exotic young woman dancing on the roof of the Hinata-Sou by the light of a full red moon. _

_Considering that she looked a lot like Su, he had asked the foreigner later if she knew who the mystery woman was. Not believing Su's answer, he had begun trying to study with Naru. Seeing as those two were the only other tenants at the Hinata-Sou that night, Su had hung around while she continued to try and convince Keitaro that she was indeed the woman he had seen on the roof. In the ensuing 'conversation', Su ended up latched onto Keitaro's back, the same way she does to Motoko, with Naru was glaring at them both while she tried to study. Realising that Naru was beginning to work herself up to taking a swing at him, Keitaro attempted to reason with Su. _

"_Okay stop. Stop, Su! Why don't you reserve the hanging off bit for Motoko, and Motoko only, huh?"_

_**-GLOMP-**_

"_AAHHHHH!"_

_Su rubbed her cheek against his vigorously. "OOOH, compared to Motoko, Keitaro, you feel so much better to hold on to. And your skin is so soft and nice.__"_

_Seeing him continue to struggle, she tried another tack. "Okay, how about this? Motoko's my true, true heart. So…you get to be my lover, Keitaro."_

_After a light pummelling from Naru when he didn't turn down her offer quickly enough, (like, before she even said it would have done nicely, thankyouverymuch!) the comment was forgotten, even after Su proved to him that she was indeed the woman he had seen dancing earlier in the night._

_How hard could it be to forget that a young girl in his care turns into an older hottie under the light of a red moon, you ask? Even __after__ she attempts to kiss you on the rooftop in her adult form?_

_Simple. It's Keitaro. _

_And with all the weird crap that happens to him on a weekly basis, it becomes easily understandable._

_But, just because the incident had slipped from __his__ mind, does not mean that it had been forgotten by others…_

* * *

Red moons & Kanrinin's

By: Tezza1502

Disclaimer: 'Love Hina', the Manga and Anime, is owned and © by Ken Akamatsu, TOKYOPOP®, and their various affiliates. I personally make no claim to any type of ownership, other than the idea for this fan fiction story. So there! ; b

Notes: Hey there! Tezza here, once again bravely attempting to bring something fresh to the table. Or at least reheat some choice leftovers. Although, for this one I think I may have actually managed to break new ground. At least, I haven't seen anyone else ever attempt this idea. You'll see what I mean after the third chapter or so. Settle in and watch as I manage to begin a 'Love Hina' fic without Keitaro flying through the air! This fic will begin a few weeks after the above exchange between Keitaro, Su and Naru. (Book 5, Chapter 41, page 153 of the Manga) Which, if you remember, was after the 'Hinata Beach Café' affair, so things were rocky between Naru and Keitaro. Or rather, rockier than usual. Um, what else…

Oh yeah, I am assuming for this fic that Motoko doesn't know about Su's royal status or her homeland.

* * *

Chapter 1:- A NEW DIG (or, 'For heavens sake, be careful when you step, Seta!')

"Hey Part-timer, isn't this the life?" Toudai Professor Seta Noriyasu breathed in the morning air deeply as he stretched his limbs energetically to shake away the previous nights lethargy. Sleeping outdoors always got his archaeological juices flowing, even better than a big pot of black coffee or his erratic pursuit of Haruka.

Keitaro glared at his Sempai from under the wing of the 'borrowed' single prop sea-plane the Toudai professor had ploughed into the deserted island beach they were stuck on a few days before. He had decided to take up Seta's offer of going over a new site the energetic man had discovered recently after a particularly trying couple of weeks at the Hinata-Sou, where he is the Manager. For some reason, after they had returned from their summer working at the Hinata Beach Café, the girls under his care had been on an even shorter fuse than normal when it came to his accidents. Even _Shinobu _had snapped at him one day when Su had head-kicked him into a basket of freshly-laundered clothes, spreading them all over the floor.

So, feeling more hard done by than usual, he had jumped at the chance to escape for a week or two to an isolated island when Seta had shown up one day out of the blue. Despite only having worked for the man for a couple of months, it was a rare chance to do some fieldwork in an area that interested him.

Naru, of course, threw a fit when she found out. They were supposed to be studying for their next round of entrance exams. The ensuing violence only hardened his resolve to take a break from his duties as _Kanrinin_. So, leaving them in Haruka's care, he had departed with Seta for parts unknown.

However, in his rush to get away for a while, he had forgotten the fact that Seta was something of a disaster magnet. Even more so than himself.

"Hey dork! Make me breakfast!" A young, petulant voice came from the other side of the plane wreck. The follow up sandball to the back of his head ensured that he could not ignore her demand and go back to sleep.

'_Why did he have to bring __her__?' _Keitaro asked rhetorically as he dragged himself out of his sleeping bag and set about fulfilling the request. He knew that Sarah MacDougal was Seta's adopted daughter, and that the young girl did not see her father anywhere near enough to suit her since he had left her in Keitaro's care. However, he had really been looking forward to a stag trip. Secretly, he was sure that he was beginning to develop ovaries from spending so much time in the company of so many females.

Grumbling a reply to Sarah, he set about preparing a simple meal for the three of them, making sure to give her the larger portion. He had learnt over the past few mornings that if she started out the day with a full belly, she was less inclined to make trouble for him until she had finished digesting it, usually around mid-morning. And by the time she was feeling mischievous again, he and Seta were usually busy probing for signs of past inhabitants. Which meant that any pranks or tricks she felt like pulling while they were working was a no-no.

Oddly enough, it turns out that one of the few good habits Seta had managed to instil in his daughter was to respect the dig. He was disgustingly pliant to her whims most of the time. But when he was working, she knew better than to disturb him, or anyone with him. It was a facet of the young girl that Keitaro was surprised to learn about. Considering her behaviour at the Hinata-Sou, he had assumed that she didn't hold _anything _sacred.

"So where do you want to try today?" He called to his mentor as he prepared their meal.

"Dunno." Seta replied as he threw his cigarette butt away as he approached the cooking area. Keitaro had banned him from smoking around the food preparation area while he was in charge of the cooking . "Actually. I want to climb to the top of that extinct volcano and get a birds-eye view today." He pointed to the jagged plateau that dominated the entire island. "When I first found this place, it looked very promising considering how many small artefacts were lying around. But now…I dunno. I felt _sure _that we would have stumbled across something big by now!" He scratched the back of his head, looking vaguely like a kid who's just been told that he _won't _be getting that present he had been wanting for ages for his birthday.

Keitaro shrugged, expecting something like this. Seta _was _brilliant, in his own way. It's just that occasionally he let his enthusiasm get the better of his common sense. Normally, it would be annoying. But Keitaro's only expectation from this trip had been to get through a day or two without a case of unaggravated assault being perpetrated upon his person. Despite the occasional trip up from Sarah, it was going surprisingly well.

"Alright. I'll pack us a lunch to take with us." He said, eyeing off the peak critically. "I figure it'll take us most of the day to get up there and back to camp."

Seta nodded agreeably. "Make sure you pack the camera as well. You never know what we might miss with our eyes that'll leap off the screen instead." He said, referring to the digital camera and laptop that was a part of their inventory.

Keitaro mumbled an affirmative as he began dishing up breakfast.

* * *

"Wow! That took a _lot _longer than I thought it would." Seta said cheerfully as the trio reached the peak, a few hours later. Keitaro chose not to reply, seeing as he was busy collapsing into a heap and trying to catch his breath after lugging a backpack full of equipment up the steep incline. Seta had set a brisk pace, and he had struggled to keep up.

"Woah! You can see _everything _from up here!" Sarah exclaimed, hopping down from her perch on her fathers shoulders and racing to the cliffs-edge to get a better view. And what a view it was.

The island was shaped like a fat crescent. The three of them had set up camp on the southern point, mostly because that was the first thing Seta had hit with the plane when they'd arrived.

After catching his breath, Keitaro began paying attention to his surroundings again. Coming up beside the other two, he silently agreed that it was a great view. Walking carefully around the edge of the small plateau and taking it all in, he finally broke out the camera and a couple of binoculars. Handing one to Seta and the other to Sarah, he began taking photo's of the entire island with the intent of joining them up into one continuous picture on the computer later.

"So what type of ruins from the Turtle Civilisation were you hoping to find here again, Seta?" Keitaro asked, more to pass the time than any desire for knowledge.

"Well, I figure that this might have been the site of one of their…holiday retreats, I guess you could call it." Seta answered distractedly. "It's isolated, and well away from their traditional shipping lanes. So no real chance of anyone accidentally stumbling across it on a trade mission. Plus, a lot of the artefacts we've found indicate that the former inhabitants were of an upper caste, if not actual members of royalty." He frowned at something, before continuing his perusal of the landmass. "But, from what I can see, there's no sign of the traditional temple anywhere. Which as you know is very unusual. Their entire culture centred around the worship of their turtle god. For there not to be one present is impossible, for all intents and purposes."

"Hey Papa? Come have a look at this." Sarah put in, pointing at a large mound of palm trees and jungle towards the northern and of the volcano.

Walking over, Seta looked at the patch of the island his daughter had indicated with interest. "Hmm…you may have something there, Sarah." She beamed up at him as he patted her head affectionately. "Part-timer. Take a few photo's of that, and we'll give them a going over tonight when we get back to camp."

Doing as he was asked, Keitaro took several snaps at varying degrees of zoom, before turning away to complete his former task of creating a photo mosaic of the entire island.

* * *

After eating the food they had brought surrounded by views that any restaurant owner would sell their first-born for, they packed up and headed back to their camp. Upon returning, they had enjoyed a swim in the warm tropical waters before having a sponge bath and eating dinner. When that was cleaned away, they spent some time poring over the photos that had been taken several hours before.

Seta kept coming back to the ones Keitaro had taken of the mound that Sarah had pointed out. Finally, he selected one and placed a finger on the screen. "Look at that Part-timer, and tell me if you can see anything."

Keitaro looked at where Seta's finger was indicating. _'Nup. Nothing jumping out at me.' _He thought. Just as he was about to say as much, he happened to squint at the screen the right way. _'Hey, wait a minute…'_

"Is that a straight line? And does the tree line seem to drop a few meters very sharply, right along that edge?"

Seta nodded, impressed that his new assistant had spotted it so quickly. "Yup! Almost as if a wall had been overgrown with vegetation. And as we all know, straight lines don't occur on their own in nature. There's something manmade under those trees." His eyes sparkled in anticipation of what they might find under there tomorrow.

"So, what do we do now. Report your findings to the University?" Keitaro asked.

"No, dork! We gotta get more proof first." Sarah chided him.

"Yup!" Seta agreed with his daughter. "So tonight we get a good nights sleep. Tomorrow we find that ruin and try to get inside."

Keitaro gulped. "Isn't…won't that be a little dangerous?" He asked, quite rightfully thinking that a ruin that has been abandoned for centuries might not be the most stable of structures to force an entry into.

"What's the matter? Haven't got the _stones _for a bit of _real _archaeology?" Sarah goaded him.

"Now now, Sarah. The part-timer is still new to our style of archaeology." He scolded his daughter very gently. "Give him time to get used to it. He'll be fine in the end."

"But-" Sarah frowned.

"But-" Keitaro fretted.

"And now its time to go to bed." Seta announced with a clap of his hands, completely ignoring the twin looks of annoyance he was getting from the others.

Seeing that it would be no use trying to talk with him tonight, Keitaro shrugged and crawled into his sleeping bag under the opposite wing that Sarah had claimed for herself and Seta. With a final wish that the next day would not bring any unpleasantness to their endeavour, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

* * *

The next morning went fairly smoothly.

Seta got them lost only a few times as he tried to match the photos to what they were walking though. After a couple of hours, they reached what he judged to be where the straight line in the jungle was.

"Hmmm…" Seta absently pulled out a cigarette and began puffing away as he looked at the solid wall of creeping vines that rose out of the jungle floor. He looked from side to overgrown side, deciding. After a moment, he shrugged and breathed out a cloud of smoke. He carefully watched which way the air took it. Shrugging again, he pointed to the left. "This way."

Keitaro watched as Seta and Sarah started heading in the direction he had indicated. _'That…__that's__ how he decides which way to go? By following the wind! And I thought Su was occasionally nuts!' _He shook his head, wondering about when the exact point in his life had been reached that he had stopped associating with normal people.

"Come on part-timer, keep up. You don't want to get left behind out here, do you?" Seta called out over his shoulder.

Wishing to avoid that result, Keitaro picked up his feet and followed them.

* * *

In no time at all, they came across what appeared to be a gateway. Two trees grew on either side of something that might have been a wooden door at some point in the distant past. Now, all that remained were four rusting spokes of metal sticking out of the sides. Whatever wood they had been holding on to had long ago rotted away.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Seta enthused. Pulling out a torch, he began making his way inside. Sarah latched on to his hand and activated her headlight. "Come on dork! Your not afraid of the dark, are you?" She poked her tongue out at Keitaro when he hesitated.

'_Uh-huh, you're one to talk.' _He thought to himself, noting the young girl's death-grip on Seta's hand. Steeling himself for whatever they might run across inside, he switched on his own flashlight and followed them inside the dark corridor.

A few minutes later, he stepped out into an overgrown courtyard. Seta was over the far side, wiping away some vines and getting very excited about what was under them.

"Hey Keitaro, check this out!" The Toudai professor shouted, gesturing wildly for him to join them. "This is amazing! My hypothesis was right. This island _was _a place for the upper class to get away to, from time to time."

"How can you tell?" Keitaro asked. He figured that it would be harder than this to find that sort of thing out.

Seta pointed at a faded mural on the wall. "From what I can tell, this seems to be a…tourist guide, I guess you could say." He pointed at certain features. "That says where the docks used to be. That describes the location of various inns, guest houses and hot springs. And this one…" Seta faded out, his jaw dropping as he translated something.

"_What?_" Keitaro and Sarah both demanded impatiently.

"I-I can't be one hundred percent sure, but this says where the entrance to the Hall of Petitioning is." He whispered, trying not to faint.

"Which means?" Keitaro enquired impatiently, not quite feeling the excitement the older man was.

"It means…" Seta faded out, before pulling his badly shaken thoughts together. "According to what I have read, the Turtle Culture used to be able to commune directly with their Gods at one point. Heck, these halls might even _pre-date _the Turtle Culture! Only a few of these Halls of Petitioning existed throughout their empire. Something about that the petitioning dais had to be set up in a very specific location. They would stand on this dais and appeal to the Gods to intercede on their behalf on any matter."

"So? Don't most cultures around the world have similar beliefs?" Keitaro asked, not really impressed. From Seta's earlier reaction, he had been hoping for something more dramatic.

"Yes, but there is anecdotal evidence that suggests that these petitioners were occasionally answered." Seta replied to the other two's frankly disbelieving expressions.

Sarah was the first to recover. "Yeah, whatever! Lets just explore." She demanded.

For once, Keitaro found himself in agreement with the pint-sized terror. "Does that map show how to get to this room?"

Seta blinked at their lack of enthusiasm. Don't they realise just how _important _this could be? "Oh, uh, yes it does."

"Well, lets check it out."

"Um, okay." Seta glanced at the map again, memorising the path they would have to take. "This way." He pointed towards a decaying building. Entering first, he motioned Keitaro and Sarah to hold back. "Normally, after the Turtle Civilisation has decided to abandon a settlement, they've been known to leave behind booby-traps to discourage the curious. Don't touch anything that looks weird." He cautioned, pointing towards an oddly shaped stone outcrop on the floor in front of him, before tapping it experimentally with the toe of his boot. Satisfied that it was not going to trigger anything, he turned back to them. "So just follow me and do exactly what I do-_heyyyyyy_…" Arms flailing about like a windmill, Seta tried to keep his balance as the floor opened up beneath him. Failing, he plummeted into the darkness. But not before snagging Keitaro and pulling the luckless _Kanrinin _in after him.

As quickly as it happened, the floor slid back into place, sealing any chance of following them into the blackness. Sarah looked numbly at the spot where they had disappeared into.

"_Papa?_" She whimpered.

* * *

Half a world away, Motoko was walking towards Su's room with the intention of telling the foreigner that dinner was ready. Reaching the door, she was about to knock when she heard one side of a conversation from within.

'_Huh? Who could she be talking too?' _Motoko wondered. Curious, she put an ear to the wood, the better to hear what was being said.

"Heyas, moms! Pretty good." Su's voice rang out clearly. A language Motoko was unfamiliar with replied warmly to her greeting.

'_Ah, she must be talking to someone from her homeland. Her mother, from the sounds of it.' _Motoko was about to draw away and give Su her privacy, when the young girl began raising her voice.

"WHAT! Why do I hafta…"

"What do you mean, 'There's no-one else close by'? What about Amalla?"

"But-"

"But I-"

"I know that-"

"Oh come on! I never agreed-"

"But _Mom_?"

"This sucks."

"Yeah alright, I understand."

"I get it, okay!"

"Fine."

"I love you too."

"Bye."

Motoko wondered what she had just overheard. It sounded like Su was being asked to do something she did not want to do, by her mother of all people. Concerned that her friend might be in some sort of trouble, she was about to knock and offer what help she could, when the door slid open suddenly, revealing a dejected-looking Su.

"So, ya heard all that?"

Motoko flushed slightly at being caught behaving like Kitsune. "I-I did not mean to intrude, but it seemed like you were being pressured into doing something. I would like to help, if I can." She offered.

Su looked up at her, as if weighing up whether to trust her with this or not. Deciding to take the chance, she smiled.

"Actually, there is something you can do. You up for a road trip?"

* * *

Notes: Sandball; kind of like a snowball, but grittier. (hey, what do you expect from someone who learnt how to swim before he could walk?)


	2. On a Wing, With a Prayer

Red Moons & Kanrinin's

By: Tezza1502

Disclaimer: Ken Akamatsu and TOKYOPOP® make the money off Love Hina. I'm just in it for the buzz! (Yup! I'm an utter review-whore.)

Notes: Nuthin' to really say here. Still bringing the contestants together.

* * *

Chapter Two:- ON A WING, WITH A PRAYER (or, are we there yet?)

The Hinata-Sou was experiencing an _un_usual lull in the usual chaos. Some of the tenants were enjoying it, on the outside at least. Naru and Motoko in particular were quite vocal about how much of a difference it made around the Hinata since their male _Kanrinin _had departed with Seta a few days before. Given free reign, they could go on for quite a while on the subject. Although, the longer they talked, the more you could hear a slightly wistful tone creeping into their diatribes. As if what they were saying, and what they truly believed were two different things. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt to those two.

The others, however…

Kaolla Su had been tinkering with some old inventions of hers, dismantling obsolete mecha's to try and make better ones. Giving that up after an hour, she then attempted to repair the toaster she had 'borrowed' for spare parts. To her disgust, she managed to put it back together in the condition it had been before she liberated it from the kitchen. No self-destruct modes. No side-mounted, thermal tracking lasers. Just a plain, simple, harmless old toaster. Sighing deeply, she placed it in front of her and glared at it. When it refused to either wither and die, or spontaneously evolve into a new mechanical life form, her shoulders slumped even further.

"Its just no fun since Keitaro went away." She pouted. It wasn't her fault that the rest of the tenants had gotten their period at the same time, exaggerating their usual reactions to Keitaro's inherent clumsiness. And why do girls have to synchronise that way after living together for a certain length of time, anyway? It wasn't fair! Although, to be honest, she had been just as bad. _'I thought I had left that crap behind after I'd been-'_

Before she could finish that thought, a melodious bell sounded from within a tree trunk in the corner of her room/jungle.

'_What the…It's been ages. Why would anyone be calling me now?' _Su thought as she bounded over. Placing her open hand on the trunk, a light ran up and down the length of her palm and fingers, scanning her biometric readings.

-/IDENTITY, PLEASE?/-

"Princess Kaolla Su." Su replied, providing a voice sample to confirm the other readings.

-/CONFIRMING. PLEASE WAIT…/-

-/CONFIRMED. RECEIVING A TRANSMISSION FROM THE ROYAL PALACE OF MOL-MOL./-

The trunk split open cleanly to reveal a twenty-inch plasma screen hidden within. Upon it, a face was beginning to come into sharp focus.

"Kaolla darling! So nice to see you again." A strikingly beautiful woman appeared, showing only the faintest signs of age. This was Narilla Su, Kaolla's biological mother and Queen of Mol-Mol. "How have you been keeping over there?"

"Heyas, moms! Pretty good." Kaolla answered cheerfully enough.

"That's nice. Your father, Estella and I have been worried. Hina _promised _that she would look after you, but when we did not hear from you in so long…" She sighed theatrically, pouring on the guilt. Before Kaolla could answer, she continued, "Unfortunately, this is not just a social call, sweetie. We need you to go to an old temple of our ancestors and see who or what has set off the security system."

Kaolla exploded. They swore they wouldn't try and pull any of this crap on her while she was studying in Japan. "WHAT! Why do I hafta…"

"Because it is one of our sacred sites." Her mother interjected firmly. "Only members of the royal family have the authority to enter it unharmed." Her face brightened in an attempt to soften the impact of their request. "And since no-one else of royal lineage is nearby, we thought you-"

"What do you mean, 'There's no-one else close by?' What about Amalla?"

The woman pursed her lips. "Your sister is…indisposed…for the moment." She leant in and whispered. "Amalla and your father had another blazing row the other day. So their not in each other's good books right now."

Kaolla felt a guilt trip coming on. "But-"

"And," Her mother continued, "After your done, it might be a good idea to swing by the palace and visit us. Just to let your people know that you are still okay."

'_Oh fine, bring the great unwashed into it, why don't you!' _She thought sarcastically. "But I-"

"And your father would be so happy to see his daughter again after so long away." She whispered again. "He really misses you. We all do."

"I know that-" Yup! Guilt trip. About level two.

"Excellent!" She clapped her hands together gleefully. "It's settled. You can fly over to the Island of the Waning Moon with one of those _delightful _inventions of yours, investigate, then come home for a visit!" She shuddered slightly as she mentioned Kaolla's gift for invention. She loved her daughter dearly, but the girl did not know the meaning of the word 'restraint'. It's a part of why she had ended up the way she had.

"Oh come on! I never agreed-"

"_Kaolla_!" Her mother cut in sternly. "I know that you were never really comfortable with the responsibilities that came with being a member of the royal family, but you are _still _a princess of Mol-Mol. You have certain obligations that you must occasionally perform. This is one of them."

"But _Mom_?"

"I am not arguing with you on this. Do it!"

Kaolla gave in with as much grace as she could muster. "This sucks." Which wasn't much.

"Indeed, but it is your duty as the closest member of the royal family-"

"Yeah alright, I understand."

"-to go to our sacred places, where no common person may tread, and-"

"I get it, okay!"

"I know dear. But hearing isn't the same as listening with you." Her mother retorted sweetly. "Now be a good girl, and go and see what is going on. While its probably just one of our old temples finally crumbling in on itself, it is still nonetheless a sacred site."

"Fine." Kaolla sniffed, turning her nose away from the monitor.

"I love you."

At that, she faced the screen again and returned a small smile to her mother. "I love you too."

"I know, sweetie. Even if you don't say it enough. See you soon." She waved as the screen winked out.

"Bye." Kaolla said softly to the blank screen before it was retraced back into the tree. _'Great! I'm the smartest person on the Pacific Rim, but I still can't win a conversation with my mother!' _Su fumed to herself. Its not that she doesn't want to help out every now and again. Its just that after what happened to her the last time she was capable of performing her royal duties, she was understandably reluctant to take up the load once more. Even in a small way, like this appeared to be. _'This __really__ sucks!' _She repeated her earlier comment on the subject. _'Ah well. Nothing for it, I s'pose.' _She shrugged in defeat, before brightening slightly. _'At least it'll keep me busy for a bit. An' who knows, I might bump into Keitaros out there. After all, he an' Sarah's pop said that they'd all be out that way somewhere, didn't they?'_ She tried to recall exactly which island Keitaro had said they were heading to, before remembering that before he'd had a chance to say the name, Naru had belted him through a wall for abandoning them again.

Opening the door to her room with the intention of letting the rest of the house know that she was going away for a bit, she was surprised to almost bump into her favourite person who wasn't a food provider. Looking up at the sheepish face of Motoko, Su realised that she had been listening in for whatever reason.

"So, ya heard all that?"

Motoko flushed slightly at being caught. "I-I did not mean to intrude, but it seemed like you were being pressured into doing something. I would like to help, if I can." She offered.

Su stared at her, as if weighing up whether to trust her with this or not. Actually, she was touched that her friend and sometimes bed-sharer was willing to get involved in something without knowing what it was. Besides, it'd be nice to have some company for the duration. Deciding to take the chance, she smiled.

"Actually, there is something you can do. You up for a road trip?"

* * *

"Well, its not _exactly _a road trip. But ya get the idea, right?" Su shouted gleefully over her shoulder at Motoko, who had her eyes firmly shut. Not so much for the fact that they were currently cruising at an altitude of about five thousand feet and doing approximately mach-two, but because they were doing all of this on the back of a giant mecha-turtle.

Motoko ignored her cheery travelling companion in favour of staying in the foetal position she had curled up into at the first sight of their ride. Luckily, this mecha-tama was purpose built for long hauls, as opposed to the usual heavy arsenal.

It was actually a _very _unusual mecha-tama, being a bit more stripped down and safety-conscious than Su's usual models. No weapons systems, (well, not _too _many) just a lot of fuel and spare parts for repairs. It even had seats! And an enclosed cockpit! Normally, Su wouldn't bother with all that stuff. But considering that this was official business, it meant that she had to be able to get home no matter what. _Without _calling her parents for help.

Motoko thought about the whirlwind of events that had led her to being in this position in the first place. After she had agreed to help Su with her task, she had found herself being dragged down into the bowels of the Hinata-Sou. Even telling the young girl that if they left now they would miss out on dinner did not slow her down. The only concession Su was willing to make in her rush to go was to leave a note for the others, explaining their absence.

* * *

_**Heyas! Su here!**_

_**Am going out for a bit. Might be gone for a few days or so. Will be back sooner or later. Am taking Motoko with me to keep my toes warm at night. **_**, )**

_**-Su**_

_**P.S.: Save me some dinner Shinobu! KS**_

* * *

Motoko was broken out of her fugue state by a jabbing sensation in her ribs. Cracking an eye open slightly, she saw Su pointing excitedly down at something. Fighting down the bile trying its best to escape, Motoko crawled over and glanced briefly at what the other girl was pointing at.

Which turned out to be a large, crescent-shaped island in the middle of nowhere. "Where are we?" She said through clenched teeth.

"We are currently circling 'The Island of the Waning Moon'. My people used to occupy it, centuries ago, before we fell from the favour of the Gods." Su explained enigmatically.

Right now, Motoko just didn't care. "Are we landing on it?"

"Yup! Just about to now." She replied, banking their craft sharply and pointing it's nose towards the base of the volcano rising out of the middle of the island.

"Good!" Motoko gulped as their personal gravity lurched. _'Land this hard-shelled nightmare so I can get off it as quickly as possible.' _Despite being made of metal, it was still in the shape of a foul, loathsome, green, slimy, disgusting, demonic, flippered, evil, snapping, turtle.

Yup, Motoko has issues.

"Hang on to your hakama, its time to land." Su shouted as they bulldozed a path through the jungle, straight towards the overgrown stone wall she had spotted from the air on the way down.

Seeing what they were heading towards at full speed, Motoko roused herself out of her misery long enough to let out a piercing shriek. It only ended after they had come to a complete stop, a good ten centimetres from the wall.

After she was sure that all forward motion had halted and all her body parts were in their proper positions, Motoko clambered off the mecha-tama and streaked off into the jungle to hug and kiss a random tree. "I'm alive!"

Su looked at her travelling companion with a smug expression. "Fraidy cat." She teased, leaning over the front of their craft to slap the wall with the palm of her hand. "We stopped with _heaps _of room to spare."

* * *

After Motoko had pulled herself together, she set about adjusting her backpack so that it sat comfortably on her shoulders and did not impede her access to her sword, _Shisui_. Helping Su shoulder her own oversized pack, they carefully made their way into the ruined city.

"What did you call this place again?" The kendoist asked. Now that she was off that wretchedly-shaped machine and back on solid earth, her curiosity had returned.

"The Island of the Waning Moon." Su answered. "Like I said, my people used to inhabit this place, ages ago. According to the legends my moms told me, my people used to be able to communicate with our gods in person from here. Back then, they were a lot more interested in what used to go on down here on earth. We even had a couple that offered to be our patrons amongst them. But, something happened." She trailed off.

"What?" Motoko asked. Su rarely talked about where she had come from, even to her. And she had never hinted at possessing any form of belief system before, other than t-t-t…those infernal creatures.

"Our records are hazy. An' there are several versions that my teachers have told me about. The only thing they seem to have in common is that my ancestors became too demanding in our petitioning of the gods, and too conceited in our dealings with them when they arrived to grant the favours. We had flaunted our position as favourites too much, and so for our arrogance we were abandoned. Those that had not enjoyed our accomplishments turned on us, seeking our prosperity for themselves. It was a falling out of epic proportions, which caused us to withdraw completely from the rest of the world for centuries." Su shivered, coming out of her memories. "Ever since, we have dealt with outsiders cautiously." Blinking, her usual high-wattage smile returned to her face again.

"Sorry 'bout that. It's been a long time since I thought about those old stories." She squirmed slightly. "In fact, they're kinda why I wanted to see the outside world so badly when I was younger. To find out whether the rest of the world still hated us for what had happened all that time ago." She giggled. "Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Mol-Mol had been all but forgotten by outsiders."

Motoko stared at her friend, seeing her in a slightly different way that she had ever before. "So…if this place was abandoned years ago-"

"Actually, I think they only turned off the lights about six hundred years ago."Su interrupted. "The Europeans were coming out of their dark ages about then, and beginning to explore in earnest again. It was getting harder to fly about without being seen."

Accepting the idea that Su's people had flight centuries before the rest of the world easily, (If her ancestors were anything like the genius Su was, it was hardly surprising, Motoko figured.) she continued, "If this place has been abandoned for all that time, how do you know someone is here?"

"Well, we actually don't _know _if someone is here, or if this place has finally begun to decay badly enough to corrupt the sensors left behind. So, as the nearest member of the royal family of Mol-Mol available," Su gritted her teeth as she said that, "it falls to me to drag my toned tushie out here and see what's what."

"Why you?" Was her first question. Then, what Su had just claimed hit her. "Waitaminute! _Royal family? You?_"

"Uh-huh." Su nodded, looking at Motoko innocently. "Didn't I ever tell you? I'm a bona fide princess."

"Since when?"

"Since I was born, silly."

"But…that's not what I… why didn't you…" Motoko was at a loss as to what to ask first. Damnit, she had allowed this girl to sleep with her and dried her tears in the dark of night. Didn't she trust her enough to keep a secret!

Su could read some of these emotions dancing across her friends face. Her next words were spoken in a more mature tone. "Part of the reason I came to Japan was to have a normal childhood for as long as I could. If I'd told you, our relationship would have been affected. I just…I wanted you to like me for who I really was, and not treat me any different. I'm sorry I never told you, Motoko. Please forgive me?" She finished with a whisper, fighting back tears.

Motoko absorbed this and walked in silence for a while.

"Very well." She said finally. "I forgive you, Kaolla. I came to Tokyo to get away from my own responsibilities, so I sort of understand, I guess." Being the Heir to the Shinmei-Ryu school of martial arts and ancestral dojo was something she had been born into, and was not a responsibility she was particularly eager to assume any time soon.

"Yay!" Su bounced up and down with relief, before launching herself at Motoko to give her a glomp. Not the easiest thing to do while they are both carrying large, heavy backpacks.

"_AAKKKK!_" Motoko yelped as what felt like several tonnes of gleeful princess and accompanying spare parts impacted on her, throwing her to the jungle floor.

Dusting herself off a little later and unable to stay annoyed at Su, Motoko attempted to get back on track with their conversation. "Um, why were you asked to come here again?" She asked as they entered a tunnel that seemed to lead through the stone wall they had encountered a few minutes earlier.

"Huh? Oh, it turns out that certain parts of this place are sacred. Only members of the royal family are allowed to enter them. Otherwise the automated defence system activates." Su explained with a shrug.

"Oh" Motoko was quite familiar with the defence systems that guard Su's room. As old as the ones in place here surely were, she guessed that she would be just as lethal. "So, where do we start?"

"Over there." Su pointed to what appeared to be a large courtyard. On the far side to them, a tunnel in the wall appeared to lead off towards another exit from the enclosed city. Streets branched off from the main clearing, leading to different parts. "Ah-ha!"

"What?"

"City map." Su pointed to a wall with a large mosaic set into it. "Lets see now…uh-huh…ummm…right…mm-hmm…" Su muttered to herself as she memorised the map. "This way." She pointed towards the same building Seta, Keitaro and Sarah had entered, a couple of days before. They were just about to cross the threshold when a shouted warning reached them.

"DON'T GO IN THERE!"

Su and Motoko turned to see a small blonde running towards them.

"Sarah?"

* * *

Notes: Before anyone gives me crap about the period thing, let me just say that it's the truth. If a group of women live together long enough, their menstrual cycles begin to align with each others. Something about more females being fertile at the same time, to increase their chances of getting pregnant. It's a biological leftover from our _very _distant ancestors.

Also, I have no idea what Kaolla's parents names are, so I made some up. (I went through my copy of the Manga twice. But I couldn't find them.)


	3. Uncovering Secrets

Red moons & Kanrinin's

By: Tezza1502

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Love Hina', its characters, or anything else to do with it. I'm just putting my own spin on an idea.

Notes:...I got nuthin'.

* * *

Chapter Three:- UNCOVERING SECRETS (Or, can't you _ever _stay out of trouble?)

"Sarah? What are you doing here?" Motoko asked in shock as the girl in question barrelled into Su and knocked her off her feet.

"Gimme food! I'm starving!" Sarah shouted as she planted a foot into the back of Su's head while attempting to tear the pack off her back. Freeing it finally, she bounced away, using Su as a springboard.

'_So that's what it feels like for Keitaro.' _Su thought to herself as Sarah began rummaging through her backpack.

"If you're looking for food, you're digging through the wrong pack." She said, making Sarah pause. "All I gots is spare parts in mine."

Growling, Sarah abandoned her now useless prize and began advancing on Motoko, who was frantically shrugging off her own backpack. "Here. I think there's snacks at the bottom." She said, throwing it down on the ground. She did _not _want to be shoved face first into the dirt and trampled on, like Su had been.

A few minutes later, after Sarah had chomped greedily through a large amount of Ration bars, Motoko tried asking her for information again. "Sarah, how did you get here? Is this the place Seta was going with Keitaro?"

"Uh-huh." Sarah answered around mouthfuls of food. "Papa heard that this place had some interesting artefacts on it, so the plan was to give it a once over before applying for a grant from the University. We landed on the southern end about five or six days ago, and we've been exploring ever since. A few days ago, we climbed that," She pointed over her shoulder at the extinct volcano, "to get a birds-eye view. We saw this place, and decided to give it a look-see." Sarah paused as her bottom lip began to quiver slightly. "Papa and the dork went into that building, when they set off a trap and dropped into the floor." By now she was trying hard not to cry in front of them. "I haven't seen them since. That was two days ago."

Motoko was stunned into inaction. _'She…she has survived in this place, __**alone**__, all by herself? For almost __**two days**__!' _While she had vaguely guessed that being raised by a man who spent a great deal of his time outside of civilisation's paved roads would prepare her for a situation like this, she was still amazed that Sarah had managed to hold herself together as long as she had, and that she was only just starting to break down now.

Motoko blinked at that thought. She looked again and observed that Sarah was indeed beginning to shake uncontrollably, despite her best efforts to hide it. The young Aoyama was at a loss as to what to do. She had never really had to offer comfort to someone before, and she was unsure as to how to go about it.

Kaolla, however, cut to the chase. Stepping up close, she wordlessly drew the pre-teen in a gentle hug. Pulling her close, she began stroking Sarah's hair lightly and whispering words of comfort in her native language while rocking the young blond from side to side.

Sarah was frozen at the unexpected offer of comfort. She was a big girl, damnit! She didn't need to be treated like a baby. She had been looking after herself just fine, since her mama went away.

But, there is something very primal about being offered comfort without any strings attached. For someone to just envelop you in a warm hug and share your pain, simply because it's the right thing to do. And try as she might to resist, Sarah eventually gave in and accepted the unspoken offer. Because it felt so damn good to be held by someone. Because it had been far too long since anyone had offered.

So they stayed that way for a while, Kaolla holding Sarah in her arms and comforting her. Motoko looking on, glad that someone knew what to do. And maybe just a little jealous. It's been a long time since she'd been held like that, as well.

"Feel better now." The Mol-Mollian asked softly.

"Y-yeah." Sarah answered shakily. "You tell anyone that I was crying, an' I'll-" She paused, trying to think up a dire enough threat to keep Su's mouth zipped.

"Don't worry. Your secret is safe with us." Kaolla looked over at Motoko and raised an eyebrow.

Motoko caught the hint. "Oh yes, not a word."

"Besides, no-one'd believe us anyway." She teased.

"Damn straight." Sarah agreed, wiping her nose on her sleeve.

"Now, lets get your papa an' Keitaros out of wherever they've landed." Su announced, standing.

"Wait…you know where they are?" Sarah demanded.

"Yup! Or at least, I will once I get to the security control room."

"Huh?" Sarah looked to Motoko for an explanation, and only getting a confused shrug for her efforts.

"It's like this: This island belonged to my family, way back when. So I know how to work the security measures well enough to bail 'em out of the clink. An' if that doesn't work, I'll level the place! Those two'll be out an' tripping over each other in no time." Su marched towards the building they had been just about to enter when Sarah interrupted them. Reaching the point where Keitaro and Seta vanished, she tapped a code into a part of the wall no different to any other. With only the slightest of rumbles, the wall slid away to reveal a stairway leading down. "Ta-daah!"

"Wow." Sarah was appropriately surprised. "That was cool."

"You ain't seen _nothing _yet." Su preened.

* * *

A few more staircases, and the odd wrong turn later, they emerged into a huge room that was empty except for a large, low set stone table in the centre. "An' here we are!"

"Where?" Sarah asked. "There's nothing here."

"Wait for it." Su requested as she walked over to the table and pressed her hand into a depression on one side of it. Motoko and Sarah jumped as a voice came from everywhere. In their shock, neither of them noticed that Su had jumped as well, her eyes widening with surprise.

-/IDENTITY, PLEASE?/-

"Princess Kaolla Su." She responded, a bit suspicious. This was _not _the level of technology she had been expecting to find in place here.

-/CONFIRMING/-

This time, the wait was almost a minute long. Suddenly, the entire space above the table burst into light. Sarah and Motoko jumped backwards as the light resolved into a three dimensional holographic layout of the entire island. Motoko was surprised to see that it was current, noting that the parts of the jungle Su's landing had destroyed were present, as well as what she assumed to be Seta's plane at the southern end.

-/IDENTITY CONFIRMED. WELCOME, PRINCESS KAOLLA SU. HOW MAY THIS FACILITY ASSIST YOU?/-

"Query: please list the location of every human bio-signature within this city."

-/THERE ARE CURRENTLY TWO HUMAN BIO-SIGNATURES IN THE SAME ROOM AS THE PRINCESS. THERE ARE A FURTHER TWO HUMAN BIO-SIGNATURES IN THE HOLDING CELLS/-

"Please denote the described bio-signatures as non-hostile allies."

-/CONFIRMED/-

A whirring sound came from around them as several lasers withdrew back into their resting places in the shadows. Motoko and Sarah turned back and glared at Su, who shrugged.

"Hey, at least they didn't shoot first. Besides, I _am _a princess. The computer's first priority is to safeguard me." She explained.

Sarah snorted. "Since when are _you _a princess? And of where?"

Su evaded, not wishing to go through the whole thing again. "Tell ya later. After we get your papa and Keitaros back." She answered with a wink. Turning back to the table, she continued drawing the relevant information out of the security AI concerning the others. She found that Keitaro and Seta were both sharing a cell several levels below them, but had not been otherwise harmed. "Can you still hear me if we go down there?"

-/AFFIRMATIVE, THROUGH THE VARIOUS WALL MOUNTED INTERFACES PRESENT. ANY COMMANDS WILL HAVE TO BE ADDRESSED THROUGH THEM AS WELL/-

"Okie-dokies!" Su turned and headed out through another doorway that had opened on the opposite side to the way they had entered. "C'mon you two. Lets go get 'em! An' don't touch anything unless I say so. It might be another booby trap."

* * *

After the trapdoor had swallowed them both, Keitaro and Seta had fallen a surprisingly long way. The walls of the pit had sloped gently so as to break their rate of descent enough that they didn't go splat when they were finally deposited into the pitch-black cell they now found themselves in.

At first, Keitaro had been majorly freaked out by the complete absence of light. Gradually though, he had calmed down as it became apparent that the darkness was not an indication that anything unpleasant was about to happen to either him or Seta. The Toudai Professor's near-constant banter had assisted greatly in this.

Over the next two days, they had fought the boredom and darkness by swapping stories about themselves as Seta pored over every inch of the room, looking for any weakness that he could exploit to get them out of there. The _Kanrinin _had been hopeful of a quick escape at first. But as the hours turned into days, he had gradually stopped paying attention to Seta's occasionally hopeful grunts and comments. "Do you think Sarah's okay? Y'know, out there on her own."

"Yup!" Seta replied confidently, not stopping his careful inspection of the wall by touch. "We've been in some pretty hairy situations before. Plus, I trained her myself on how to survive off the land. She'll be fine for a few days. By which time, we'll be out of here." He paused, digging a finger into a crack in the wall to try and find some purchase within. Keitaro had stopped getting excited by sound of this action after the first four times.

"So you really think you'll be able to find a way out of here?"

"Of course! Just gotta keep thinking positive." The professor replied cheerfully. "And this isn't so bad."

"How so?"

"Well, for starters, there's no-one else stuck in here with us, hell-bent on killing us. And we still have some food. Plus, we've been left to our own devices, so there's nothing trying to impede our escape efforts." Seta cheerfully ticked off what he felt were the points in their favour. "So, I give us a better than fifty-fifty chance of making it out of here."

"I guess…" Keitaro was not as enthusiastic about their chances. It was his first experience at being incarcerated against his will, after all.

Seta finally picked up on the lack of enthusiasm coming from his new assistant, and addressed him directly. "Keitaro." The other man looked over at where he assumed the nervous part-timer was. "I meant it when I said that we'll get out of this. The only thing working against us right now is time. Which is much better situation to be in than say, trying to figure this out when the roof's collapsing, or some such."

Just then, the darkened cell began vibrating.

"Oh great! _Jinx it _, why don't you." Keitaro wailed in panic.

Suddenly, from the wall furthest away from them, a shaft of light erupted, blinding them both.

Seta barely had time to shield his eyes before something slammed into him. "PAPA!"

"Sarah?" Seta looked down and tried to focus on the bundle frantically clutching at him in sobbing excitement. "How did you-?"

"That'd be me." An impish voice stated from the new doorway.

"Su?" Keitaro queried in surprise.

"Yup! Heyas Keitaros!" Keitaro immediately found himself tackled by his own bundle of happy blonde.

"URASHIMA! Stop molesting Su like that." Keitaro froze in shock as another familiar voice entered the cell.

"M-M-M-Motoko?" He stammered as he frantically tried to stop Kaolla rubbing her cheek against his while humming contentedly.

"mmmm…chill out Motoko." Su said in a dreamy voice. "You can have your turn at Keitaro-snuggles after me. So just be patient." This statement left both Hinata-sou residents sputtering frantic denials.

Eventually realising that he was not in imminent danger, Keitaro found his voice. "So… you both came looking for me?" He asked, confused. "How'd you know we were in trouble in the first place?"

"We didn't! And we didn't." Su answered, beaming up at him. "My mom rang me earlier today an' said that someone had tripped an alarm here. So I flew out to investigate. Motoko's just along to keep me warm at night."

"Oh, ah, uh-huh." Keitaro nodded, trying to assimilate Su's statement.

"I beg your pardon?" Seta enquired. "Keitaro? How does your friend know about this island. And how to get us out of a prison cell built by an ancient, long extinct civilisation?"

"_Hey!_ My people aren't extinct. We just chose to step back from the rest of the world." Kaolla retorted indignantly, before a sheepish look crossed her face. "Oops."

"Really!" Seta materialised two inches from Kaolla's face, causing her to squeak in surprise. "You belong to the ancient civilisation that worshipped turtle gods centuries ago? Who's empire once extended across the pacific rim? It still exists?" He babbled excitedly.

"Well, not at the moment." She said, causing Seta to face fault. "I'm just a student in Tokyo right now."

"What about when you're at home?" He asked, trying to get some form of confirmation out of the erratic young girl.

"Oh she said she's a princess, or something." Sarah piped up.

"_Say what?_" It was hard to tell who shouted the loudest at that statement, Seta or Keitaro.

Su glared in frustration at Sarah, who stuck her tongue out in reply. "Hey, you never said it was a secret, didja."

"No, I didn't." The young girl sighed. "Lets just get out of here."

Turning abruptly, she walked off. Shrugging to each other, the rest of them followed her.

* * *

After walking along the subterranean corridors in silence for a few minutes, Keitaro sped up and started keeping pace beside Kaolla. Making sure that he was far enough away that Motoko would not think that he was up to something untoward, he started talking. "Is it true? What Sarah said?"

"…yeah, it is." She replied glumly.

Absorbing that quietly, he spoke again. "Does Granny Hina know? Or Haruka?"

"Yes, and maybe. I never asked her."

"Any of the others?"

"Just Motoko, and I only told her today."

Keitaro absorbed this in silence for a bit. "Don't you like being a princess?"

"Not really." Kaolla said softly. "It gets to be a bit overwhelming, sometimes. That's why I came to Japan. To get away from all that, and have a normal life for a bit."

Keitaro nodded. "Then I understand why you didn't say anything."

"Really?" Kaolla sounded cautiously happy.

"Yeah. You just want to be accepted for the wonderful girl you are inside, not an imposed perception." Keitaro explained honestly.

"You really mean that?"

"Uh-huh. Why would I say it otherwise." He replied with a familiar lopsided grin. "I mean, it's not like you're going to stop testing mecha-tama's on me now that the cats out of the bag, are you?"

"Oh Keitaro!" Kaolla jumped up and glomped him full strength.

"Erk!"

* * *

Watching this from behind them, Motoko was happy that her young friend was back in good spirits again. Enough so that she didn't automatically think to blast Keitaro for coming into contact with the girl. _'For cheering Su up and accepting her as she is, I will let him off. This time.' _She thought, justifying her lack of anger over their shared contact to herself. And she also managed to ignore the small twinge of jealousy at seeing the Kanrinin cautiously returning the embrace.

Feeling happier than before her secret came out, Kaolla became a little more talkative. Keeping Keitaro's hand in hers, and ignoring Motoko's occasional twitch towards her sword because of this, she decided to be gracious and allow one question from an eager Seta.

"Does the Circle of Petitioning really exist?"

'_Damn, how did he find out about that?' _Kaolla thought as she nodded hesitantly in the affirmative. "Yeah. My people used to petition the Gods on this island. And no, I'm not going to show you where it is." She stated, forestalling the professors next question. "It is a sacred place to my people. Only royalty is allowed in there. Anyone else gets an automatic death sentence." She shrugged lightly as the others freaked out a little over her blunt statement. "It was the only way to keep it from being abused, towards the end. Even then, it didn't save us." She finished enigmatically.

"What's it look like? Y'know, so we can avoid it." Sarah asked innocently. Not.

Kaolla knew the young girl's underlying motive was just to try and help her father get some more details on it. But she didn't see the harm in giving a brief description. "Well, I've never seen it myself. But from what my moms say, it's at the bottom of a huge cavern. You stand on this large circle of black stone, an' state your piece. If anyone up there is listening, a white flash happens. Then, the symbols carved into the stone start to glow while the outer edge gets surrounded by a wall of light. After that, I dunno. No-one who ever got answered told what happened to them after that." She shrugged again.

"Wow. I hope we're not going anywhere near it." Keitaro said, shuddering. He knew how clumsy he was. _No way _did he want a death sentence just for stumbling into the wrong place by accident.

"We're not." She squeezed his hand comfortingly, seeing how worried he was about it. _'Don't worry, Keitaro. The closest we'll get is this T-junction up ahead.' _

* * *

Shortly, they came upon the aforementioned T-junction. Kaolla stopped and faced the others. "Now, like I said to Motoko an' the bigmouth before we left the control room, don't touch anything you see sticking out until I say otherwise. If ya do, ya might send us all back into one of those cells again, or worse. An' I don't want to make this trip more than once. Y'hear?" She asked, ignoring the raspberry Sarah was blowing at her.

"Yep." Sarah.

"Yes." Keitaro.

"Understood." Motoko.

"Wow! An priceless artefact! This could get me funding for a dozen digs!" Guess who.

"Aw crap!" Kaolla muttered as she spotted Seta tugging at another booby trap. "This way guys. RUN!" She shouted as she began sprinting in the opposite direction of Seta.

Sarah, Keitaro and Motoko looked at each other for a moment, before they sprinted over to the professor. Keitaro and Motoko grabbed an arm each as Sarah pinched a nerve on Seta's hand to make him release the trigger so they could drag him after Kaolla.

They had barely pulled him away before the sections of the walls nearest the trigger sprung out and crushed it like a pancake. More sections sprung out and clapped together as they ran full speed after Kaolla.

Gradually, the THOOMing sound of stone slamming together stopped coming from behind them. Risking a glance over their shoulders, they sighed with relief as they realised that the danger was over for the moment.

"Whew! It's safe to stop now guys. GUYS!" Kaolla shouted at the others from a plain doorway a second before four bodies slammed into her. "WOULGH!" She uttered as the breath was knocked out of her.

Seta managed to snag his daughter with an outstretched arm and stop his forward motion as they ploughed into a horrified Kaolla. When he finally confirmed his balance against the doorway, he looked for the others to apologise for causing this. And stopped when he found that they were nowhere in sight. "Huh? Where'd they disappear to?"

"Um, down there Papa." Sarah pointed at the ledge in front of them, and the three sets of footprints leading off into the blackness.

Seta was about to lean over the edge when the room exploded with light. Throwing himself and Sarah backwards purely by instinct, they ended up back in the hallway just as another stone slab came down and sealed the doorway, locking the Hinata-Sou tenants inside the room.

"Well, darn." He sighed in frustration.


	4. A Petition

Red moons & Kanrinin's

By: Tezza1502

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Love Hina', and the characters contained within. Nor do I make any claims of ownership towards 'Ah! My Goddess!', and those characters. I just write harmless, non-copywrite-threatening fanfiction, is all.

Notes: See after-story notes.

* * *

Chapter Four:- A PETITION (or, what did you just say?)

Kaolla stopped running when she realised that the booby trap was specific to that stretch of hallway only. Leaning up against the doorway of a vast, empty room, she realised that the others might not know it was safe yet. Trying to catch her breath and talk at the same time was not as easy as the movies made it out to be.

"Whew! It's safe to stop now guys. GUYS!" Kaolla shouted at the others a second before four bodies slammed into her. "WOULGH!" She uttered as the breath was knocked out of her when Keitaro and Motoko slammed into her and became entangled. She briefly glimpsed Seta and Sarah halting at the doorway she had previously occupied while the three of them continued staggering further into the unlit room.

"Oh crap, hang on you two!" Keitaro cried as he spotted the ledge they were stumbling towards uncontrollably. With a shared shriek, they all fell over the edge and began rolling down the steep incline into the darkness.

* * *

An endless age later, Keitaro, Motoko and Kaolla finally completed their uncontrolled tumble. Groaning from their various light injuries, they failed to notice at first where they had come to a stop.

'_Unh! That was __not__ pleasant._' Keitaro moaned, blinking. Opening his eyes, he found that he had, as usual, ended up a tangle of limbs with a hand on one of Motoko and Kaolla's breasts each. Y'know, your typical compromising position. '_Why me?_' He whimpered, looking around frantically for an escape route while bracing himself for the inevitable punishment. This line of thought was interrupted, however, when he realised exactly _where _the three of them had landed in the chamber. The vast chamber that was empty but for the black circle of stone they were currently lying on. "Oh crap-cakes on fire!"

* * *

Motoko was having a harder time than usual gathering her wits after the plummet from the ledge above. Keitaro had instinctively gathered both herself and Kaolla into his arms as they fell in an attempt to cushion their bodies with his own.

Her first instinct had been to struggle. She was a trained Shinmei-Ryu warrior damnit, while all _he _was doing was trying to cop a free feel on the way down.

Immediately following that thought was the counterpoint her training had instilled in her. He was actually doing something honourable. He was putting himself in harms way to protect them. Despite how that rubbed her warrior self the wrong way, the woman in her was thankful that he thought enough of her to actually care whether she came to harm or not.

And finally, she discovered that being in his arms, even in this situation, was actually quite…pleasant.

This lasted until she felt something squeeze her left breast. Looking down, she saw Keitaro's eyes bugging out as he tried to stammer an explanation. She was just about to put her fist through his ribcage and withdraw his perverted heart when he looked past her and muttered, "Oh crap-cakes on fire!"

Puzzled, she followed his current line of sight. When she realised what he was looking at, she came to the same conclusion he had, and froze in shock. "Indeed." She mumbled in agreement.

* * *

Kaolla was the last of the trio to shake off the effects of the fall. "_That was awesome! _Better than a ride on a Mecha-tama! Can we do it again?" She gleefully exclaimed.

When there was no reply to her question, she opened her eyes to see why she was being ignored. Twisting about, she first saw that Keitaro's eyes were wide open, and he was working his jaw open and shut without any sound coming out. When she looked to Motoko, the kendoist's skin was becoming paler than usual, and her eyes were beginning to curl upwards as a first step to fainting.

This confused Kaolla. Normally, whenever Keitaro groped one of the girls like he was doing to both of them right now, Motoko would be in the process of sending him into the next prefecture by this time.

Following their shared line of sight, Kaolla started becoming a bit light headed herself. _'No way! I couldn't be this lucky, could I?' _She began squirming with delight. And if she hadn't been pinned beneath two grown-ups, she would have been dancing for joy by now.

The three of them had landed within the Circle of Petitioning.

* * *

"Goddess of the Past. Goddess of Love. Patron Goddess of the people of Mol-Mol. Please grant me an audience to seek your blessing."

Keitaro and Motoko abruptly came out of their respective fugue states and looked sharply at Kaolla as she uttered those words.

"Su? What the heck are you doing?"

Kaolla stared back into Keitaro's chocolate-brown eyes and blushed slightly. "Making a wish. Could you get off me please. While this is kinda comfy, you two're both pretty heavy."

The other two blinked at her statement, before processing the last part. "Oh! Sorry!" Bouncing to their feet, Motoko an Keitaro glanced at each other before turning away hurriedly.

"Um…Su? Motoko? Sorry about that." Keitaro scratched the back of his head, blushing.

"Its okay Keitaro." Kaolla replied happily. "You saved us from going splat on the ground."

"Y-yeah. What she said." Motoko agreed hesitantly. She too was blushing. Before the whole breast-grabbing thing, she had been secretly enjoying the close contact with the _Kanrinin_. "As a reward, I will not strike you for taking such liberty with my body." She finished, cringing a little at how harsh she sounded. When had it become so difficult for her to acknowledge a kind action, even if it came from a male?

"T-that's alright. Just doing my duty as your _Kanrinin_." He stammered. He had learnt the hard way in the past that any attempt to openly say that he considered them all his friends was routinely denied, usually violently.

They looked at each other for a moment, before Keitaro remembered that he had a question that still needed answering. He had just opened his mouth to ask about Kaolla's earlier statement when the room went white.

* * *

Somewhere in Tokyo, Urd was relaxing in the living room of the house and shrine that her sister, Belldandy, had occupied with a mortal, Keiichi Morisato, through a heavenly contrived set of circumstances. She had her sake next to her position on the floor, and her favourite programme on television was about to start. _Nothing _was tearing her away from in front of that screen.

Suddenly, she felt a tug at her mid-section. '_What the…_' She frowned. It happened again, pulling her in a direction she had not had cause to go in years. And before that, centuries. '_Not_ _now! My shows gonna start in a few minutes._' She bleated internally. Unfortunately, it was a summons she could neither ignore or deny. _'This had better not take too long, or I'm gonna get pissed! Damned_ _obligations!_' She fumed as she fell forward into the television screen and transported away.

* * *

Back at the Mol-Mol temple, the white light faded. The stone circle they were standing on was now covered with glowing runes that cast enough light so that they could see each other without difficulty. And as Kaolla had told them, they were surrounded by a wall of light flowing around the edge of the circle.

"What just happened?" Motoko asked as she turned around on the spot, her sword drawn in a defensive manner.

"I…I was answered." Kaolla stuttered, suddenly looking unsure of herself for the first time that anyone could remember. "It's been so long since anyone has tried this, I-I wasn't sure if it would work."

"_**Congratulations, Kaolla Su, daughter of the royal family of Mol-Mol. You have succeeded.**_" A powerful voice intoned from behind them. "_**I am Urd. Goddess Second Class, Limited. Goddess of the Past. Goddess of Love. Patron Goddess of the people of Mol-Mol.**_" Urd said in the same unearthly tone, striking a regal pose as she spoke.

The Hinata residents spun around and gaped. Before them stood a woman of such beauty that it took their collective breath away. At slightly over six feet tall, she stood over even Motoko. Her skin was tanned, though not as heavily as Kaolla's. Upon her face were three blue triangles. Two were high on her cheeks just under her purple coloured eyes, the third on her forehead near the bridge of her nose. Large golden earrings peeked out from beneath her flowing silver hair that hung past her waist. Her curvaceous body was perfectly proportioned to entice and distract, and her attire only enhanced this effect. It was a royal purple dress that hugged her figure perfectly. It started at her shoulders, with a _wide _vee that ended far below her belly button which exposed a dangerous amount of cleavage to public scrutiny, and ended just above her ankles. She wore evening gloves of the same colour that extended up to mid-bicep. Completing the ensemble was a bright gold trim and a black cape that hung easily from her shoulders.

Keitaro only had time to whisper, "Exquisite." before he keeled over in a dead faint, his nose trickling blood.

Hearing the thump, Motoko and Kaolla turned and watched him crumple to the ground. Before they could think to check him to see if he was alright, a giggle came from the goddess standing with them. "Oh yeah, still got it!"

* * *

Keitaro came to slowly. _'Wow. That was a pleasant dream._' He thought comfortably as he attempted to shift his pillow into a better shape. When it sniggered at his touch, he realised that he might not actually be back at the base camp/crash site right now, waking up to start a new day of digging with Seta and Sarah.

Opening his eyes cautiously, he found himself lying on the lap of and staring up at the woman…no, the _Goddess_, that had so recently taken his breath away. As he began to squirm with fear and embarrassment, she held his head in her hands and calmed him down. "It's okay, Keitaro Urashima. I placed you in this position myself. You have done no wrong." She reassured him. She had been given the required files on all three mortals during her transit from Tokyo to this temple. It made for interesting reading, especially his. The lifetime of clumsiness and bad luck. His desire to help others around him despite this. His recent circumstances. It took Urd a moment to place why it all felt so familiar.

She mentally snapped her fingers as she figured it out. '_This mortal reminds me a little of Keiichi._ _I_ _wonder why he hasn't been offered a wish yet?_' Urd mused to herself. They were both shy, with pleasing auras. Leaving that mystery until she could properly access Yggdrasil, Urd concentrated on placating the three mortals she had been summoned to. "Feeling better?" When he nodded, she gently lifted him up into a sitting position.

Brushing off her dress as she stood, she refocused her attention on the matter at hand. "Now, where were we?" She furrowed her brow in thought. "Oh yeah! Princess Kaolla Su, right?" Urd looked over at the princess.

Kaolla nodded, a little unsure of herself. It was one thing to petition the gods. It was quite the other to actually receive a personal reply. The fact that this goddess was acting like a divine version of Kitsune was more than a little weird, too.

"Lets see…" Urd whipped out a small booklet with Kaolla's name on it from somewhere and began speed-reading while she paced back and forth. "Princess of Mol-Mol, yup. Genius inventor with a lunatic edge, uh-huh. (Remind me not to introduce you to Skuld.) Parents petitioned for a blessing a while ago, hmm…" the goddess frowned slightly. Pulling out two more booklets, she perused them quickly before snapping all three shut and putting them away. Facing them again, she spoke in a formal tone.

"Princess Kaolla, I have studied _all _the relevant information available to me. While motivated by slightly less than noble intentions, I nonetheless grant you your desire concerning these two, and bestow my blessing upon your union." Reaching out, Urd held all three bewildered Hinata tenants by the shoulders and places a soft kiss on each of their foreheads in turn. They were so stunned at the rapid procession of events that they didn't think to object.

Pausing at Kaolla, Urd whispered something in her ear before stepping back. Facing them again, she spoke, "Kaolla Su. Motoko Aoyama. Keitaro Urashima. Congratulations, and may your union be long and fruitful." With that, she stepped into a convenient beam of light and disappeared. '_Well, that took long enough! I hope I didn't miss too much of my show?_' The goddess thought grumpily. Damn responsibilities. Always popping their heads up at exactly the wrong time…

* * *

As the light from the glowing runes beneath their feet faded, Keitaro turned his head to look at Motoko, then Kaolla.

"Uhh…union?"

* * *

More Notes: Okay kids, fire up those blowtorches and yell 'Flame On!' as you hunch over your keyboards. As I stated on my Bio page, I am in the process of clearing out my hard drive of the fics that have been sitting there for, well, _years_ sometimes, without me touching them.

Sadly, this is as far as I got on this one. I still have some story notes for this, and a more than general idea of where I wanted it to finish. But, this is as far as I got before my muse's attention wandered away a few years ago. And while the reviews I have recieved so far are doing as I had hoped, and given my creative juices a stir, I would advise you lot to just put this on alerts and forget about it for the near future. 'Cause I am _not_ making any promises about updates for this story. (I've learned that lesson well!)

However, thank you for those of you who left me a review. They have been both gratifying and inspirational. T


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